We're suffocating on inventory space - how much of a priority is it to fix it?

[Lemuria]

The funny thing about inventory space is that no matter how much of it you have, people will always want more. FFXIV is incredibly generous with inventory space compared to many games that I've played. In FFXI, you didn't have an armory chest. All of your gear, for all of your jobs, was in your gobbie bag or not at all. That bag could be upgraded to a maximum of 80 spaces! Now we not only have a 100 space inventory, but an armory chest with 25 slots per item! The amount of inventory space we have is insanely generous already.

That's not to say I don't have inventory troubles. I'm a crafter. My inventory is almost always packed full of materials, finished works or catalysts for repairs and melds. I'm constantly battling against the struggle. But I realise that it's not the fault of the system, it's a fault of how I play the game. And I know better than anyone that if I had a bigger inventory, I'd just find new ways to fill it back up.

[BreathlessTao]

The funny thing about inventory space is that no matter how much of it you have, people will always want more. FFXIV is incredibly generous with inventory space compared to many games that I've played. In FFXI, you didn't have an armory chest. All of your gear, for all of your jobs, was in your gobbie bag or not at all. That bag could be upgraded to a maximum of 80 spaces! Now we not only have a 100 space inventory, but an armory chest with 25 slots per item! The amount of inventory space we have is insanely generous already.

Don't just compare inventory size to another inventory size. Take a look at the number of storable items vs the number of inventory slots - and compare that ratio. Gives a much more accurate picture. In FFXIV, last I heard we have about 7000 items that can potentially go in the inventory - right now, or with 3.1, I'm not sure; the .1 content patches add about 500-700 items, the guy said in the live letter, I think? (And don't forget that the "every job on one character" thing is not really common either, as far as I know.)

[Seoulstar]

Don't just compare inventory size to another inventory size. Take a look at the number of storable items vs the number of inventory slots - and compare that ratio. Gives a much more accurate picture. In FFXIV, last I heard we have about 7000 items that can potentially go in the inventory - right now, or with 3.1, I'm not sure; the .1 content patches add about 500-700 items, the guy said in the live letter, I think? (And don't forget that the "every job on one character" thing is not really common either, as far as I know.)

But how many of those items that we would actually need in our inventory?

[Solarra]

The amount of inventory space we have is insanely generous already.

It really isn't, considering that alts aren't supposed to be necessary. That means you should be able to store all your crafting items and all your gear one character. To access this many classes and crafts in WoW for example, I'd probably be using most of my 11 alts.
The storage at the inn is just bizarre, hardly anything seems to go in it and retainer storage is limited unless you buy more. I'm forever trying to make space in my bags and even now at level 51, I'm having issues with the armoury.

Perhaps FFXI was less generous, but that doesn't make the provision we have here ideal.

[Elvin]

The funny thing about inventory space is that no matter how much of it you have, people will always want more. FFXIV is incredibly generous with inventory space compared to many games that I've played. In FFXI, you didn't have an armory chest. All of your gear, for all of your jobs, was in your gobbie bag or not at all. That bag could be upgraded to a maximum of 80 spaces! Now we not only have a 100 space inventory, but an armory chest with 25 slots per item! The amount of inventory space we have is insanely generous already..

Just no....


Inventary is ridiculously small taking in to account that we can have all those diferent classes.

Taking in to account the ridiculous amount of tokens that this game have. Taking in to account the ridiculous amount of diferent things that you need to glamour diferent things.


It's really really small.


And the retainers system is probably the less confortable system for storage management that has ever being invented.

For god's sake, I've being playing in user made Neverwinter Nights ( (This one, not the useless new one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights ) persistent worlds, and they had a far more confortable system to store items outside of a character.

Retainers are unconfortable and slow.

I don't really want more retainers. I want just a new inventory system.

[Avidria]

The funny thing about inventory space is that no matter how much of it you have, people will always want more. FFXIV is incredibly generous with inventory space compared to many games that I've played. In FFXI, you didn't have an armory chest. All of your gear, for all of your jobs, was in your gobbie bag or not at all. That bag could be upgraded to a maximum of 80 spaces! Now we not only have a 100 space inventory, but an armory chest with 25 slots per item! The amount of inventory space we have is insanely generous already.

Other games also offer ways to get more inventory space that don't require paying a monthly cash micro-sub for them. In WoW it's bigger bags in your inventory and bank + void storage, In Aion, it's an expanded cube (and crafters get an even bigger inventory than everyone else on top of that). To my knowledge, most other mmo's also only have you playing one class, which would probably have 3-4 actual gear sets max anyway (depending on spec system, if there is one) so there's less need for space for that particular set of items that the armory chest (mostly) handles here.

Here, the inventory is bigger because it almost has to be. There are 23 classes in this game, and the more you play, the more slots get taken up by alt class gear - not to mention crafting mats and consumables and whatever else people like to keep.

This game has a limited-size inventory that stays static while the amount of items in the game does not...unless you're willing to pay even more cash. That's something I'm frankly not a fan of at all.

Reading these topics always baffle me, but I would really like to know what everyone is keeping so they have no room at all. I have all my classes to 50+, but dark and mch, and every one of them have a full set of gear allocated to them. I have 4 retainers (one for each gathering, and one combat), 2 have nothing but mats on it the other two have gear that I may use once my classes reach whatever level/glamour, but the biggest bulk of it is food and holiday crap that I'll never need. The only stuff I carry on me is stuff I actually use, resting anywhere from 80-90 out of 100 slots free.

I only have 2 retainers, for one. One is full of crafting mats, the other is full of alt class gear and glamour. Honestly most of it is glamour. I also have food, potions, tokens that for some reason take up inventory space, holiday furniture, and old law gear that I can't do anything with yet. I have some gear on me because it won't fit on the retainers anymore. :/

[Lemuria]

Inventary is ridiculously small taking in to account that we can have all those diferent classes.

Other games also offer ways to get more inventory space that don't require paying a monthly cash micro-sub for them. In WoW it's bigger bags in your inventory and bank + void storage

Oh really? Well, how about we talk about just that.

In WoW, you can get a nice tidy 110 inventory spaces if you go crazy with the bags and have gold coming out of your ears. This game offers you 750 inventory slots without paying a single dime! Skeptical? Let's look at the facts, shall we?

You start with 100 standard inventory slots by default. You have, by extension, 300 inventory slots for your armory. That's 400 slots already. Now, retainers offer a tidy sum of 175 slots each. You can have two retainers without paying extra. That's 350 inventory slots. Now, who here can do elementary math? Three hundred and fifty plus four hundred. You at the front, yes you. That's right. 750 inventory slots! Have a piece of candy.

That's before I even mention buying even a single extra retainer. Oh, and for obvious reasons I'm not counting the soul crystals or key items either. Do you see why I said that they're extremely generous already? I challenge you to name even one game which comes close to that. It doesn't exist anywhere.

Now, as I mentioned in the post that both of you quoted, that doesn't mean I don't have inventory troubles. I'm a crafter, so I'm always going to have inventory troubles. However, the REASON we have trouble is because we're hoarders by nature. Go on, you're free to admit it, we're all big girls and boys here. No one is judging you, least of all me. Heck, I'll freely admit I'm one of the worst hoarders of them all, because I just never know when I'll need that red landtrap leaf, or that rock salt for a quick synthesis.

Would more inventory be nice? Hell yes. Am I going to say we're, quote, "suffocating on inventory space"? Hell no. It helps to at least have some sense of perspective here. We have these troubles because we hoard, and we hoard because we can. More inventory space wouldn't solve that issue, it would just give us more chances to hoard. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it's food for thought at least.

All I'm asking is for people to think before they post, instead of playing the victim. If this was a blame game, I'd be the first on the rack.

[Gyson]

That's before I even mention buying even a single extra retainer. Oh, and for obvious reasons I'm not counting the soul crystals or key items either. Do you see why I said that they're extremely generous already? I challenge you to name even one game which comes close to that. It doesn't exist anywhere.

All I'm asking is for people to think before they post, instead of playing the victim. If this was a blame game, I'd be the first on the rack.

Well, I'm not going to patch up, log in and count it, but between the dedicated slots available for crafting items, the ability to stack items up to 250 (unless they've increased it again - wait, I checked, you can boost it to stack to 1500 per stack), the ability to belong to multiple guilds and thus have your own guild bank, bag space, etc, I'm going to guess Guild Wars 2 allows you to have more storage space than FFXIV. Even more storage can be gained by spending gems, which can be purchased using in-game gold, and it's a one-time fee rather than the additional rental charge every month that FFXIV uses.

Having said that, I'm willing to bet most MMOs provide more storage space, for the simple fact that most games allow you to mail items between alternate characters. And once you start factoring in easy mule transfers in other MMOs, FFXIV's free storage options start to look pretty pathetic. And we're not even touching on MMOs that have superior solutions to vanity item storage.

Hey, all I ask is for people to think before they post.

[CyrilLucifer]

When FFXI, a game held back by PS2 limitations and one that keeps character server data that has existed since 2002, which means you can't use the "XIV has more players" excuse, can have more than 700 inventory slots per character, I find it extremely hard to believe that XIV is limited by their "servers."

Now, admittedly, the last 200 added inventory did finally start adding to load times, but unlike XIV, you can view all of your inventory data at any given time. XIV doesn't suffer from that problem.

[Avidria]

Oh really? Well, how about we talk about just that.

In WoW, you can get a nice tidy 110 inventory spaces if you go crazy with the bags and have gold coming out of your ears. This game offers you 750 inventory slots without paying a single dime! Skeptical? Let's look at the facts, shall we?

You start with 100 standard inventory slots by default. You have, by extension, 300 inventory slots for your armory. That's 400 slots already. Now, retainers offer a tidy sum of 175 slots each. You can have two retainers without paying extra. That's 350 inventory slots. Now, who here can do elementary math? Three hundred and fifty plus four hundred. You at the front, yes you. That's right. 750 inventory slots! Have a piece of candy.

That's before I even mention buying even a single extra retainer. Oh, and for obvious reasons I'm not counting the soul crystals or key items either. Do you see why I said that they're extremely generous already? I challenge you to name even one game which comes close to that. It doesn't exist anywhere.

Now, as I mentioned in the post that both of you quoted, that doesn't mean I don't have inventory troubles. I'm a crafter, so I'm always going to have inventory troubles. However, the REASON we have trouble is because we're hoarders by nature. Go on, you're free to admit it, we're all big girls and boys here. No one is judging you, least of all me. Heck, I'll freely admit I'm one of the worst hoarders of them all, because I just never know when I'll need that red landtrap leaf, or that rock salt for a quick synthesis.

Would more inventory be nice? Hell yes. Am I going to say we're, quote, "suffocating on inventory space"? Hell no. It helps to at least have some sense of perspective here. We have these troubles because we hoard, and we hoard because we can. More inventory space wouldn't solve that issue, it would just give us more chances to hoard. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it's food for thought at least.

All I'm asking is for people to think before they post, instead of playing the victim. If this was a blame game, I'd be the first on the rack.

The current max bag size in WoW is 30 slots. You can have 4 on your person and 7 in your bank, which adds up to 330 slots, plus the 44 from the default bank and inventory slots that can't be changed - so 374 on one character.

But you can have 11 characters per server, so if you really go nuts and primarily play one character that's a max of 4114 slots total at no additional cash cost. Yes, those bags are absurdly expensive in gold and materials, but that's not my point - my point is that they are available in game, not in the cash shop. You can also freely mail gold and items between alts. I had 5-6 characters that I played actively and 5 or so more that I played on and off, plus 3 or so that were almost exclusively used for storage. I had their inventories, banks, guild banks (I had 2 of my own guilds), and mailboxes at my disposal. Each character also has access to 80 more slots through void storage.

Granted the original, base inventory space for WoW is kind of terrible - 16 slots of inventory space is next to useless if you play for any length of time. But they gave a way to get more, and they kept adding more as the game aged.

And I have no qualms with admitting that I am a hoarder in games. I collect things. My druid in WoW, who I played for ~10 years, has a completely full bank, full void storage, and a mostly full inventory...full of items and gear sets and random stuff, a fair amount of which doesn't exist or isn't available anymore. But that's beside the point, too.

My issue is primarily with the fact that you need to spend cash to get more space in this game. There are dozens of solutions available, but that's all we have right now.